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What a year. As 2023 comes to a close, we bring you a look back at the 10 biggest Bay Area Jewish news stories of the year — as determined by a combination of internet analytics sorcery and our own in-house biases.

1. Jewish environmentalist on Oakland City Council disinvited from speaking to UC Berkeley class

Our highest traffic story this year — by a pretty wide margin — is news editor Gabe Stutman’s article about Dan Kalb, an experienced environmental advocate and a member of the Oakland City Council, getting disinvited from speaking to a class on environmental policy at UC Berkeley at the behest of students. His pro-Israel views were the only reason given by the students.

2. Post-Oct. 7 antisemitism

We’re lumping a few stories in together here — but it’s clear that the local Jewish story of the year is antisemitism. (Arguably, we should include the Kalb story here, but it got so much traffic on its own.) There have been plenty of incidents this year that blur the line between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. But stories like these make the line pretty clear:

• ‘The public square is toxic’: As conflict grows, more Bay Area Jews feel unsafe
• Jewish-owned Smitten Ice Cream vandalized with broken windows and pro-Palestinian tag (and multiple followups)
• Large menorah destroyed, thrown into Oakland’s Lake Merritt (and a followup)
• ‘Freaked out’ parents discover antisemitic posts linked to Oakland school social worker

3. Kidnapping of Hersh Goldberg-Polin

One of the Israeli Americans kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who was born in Berkeley. His family belonged to Congregation Beth Israel, a modern Orthodox shul in Berkeley. Though he and his family moved to Israel when Hersh was 7, they still have many ties to the area. At first, as in this JTA report the day after the Hamas attacks, Hersh’s fate was uncertain. But it soon became clear he was among the hostages in Gaza, where he remains.

J. contributor Ryan Torok touched on Hersh in “An agonizing wait for Bay Area families of Gaza hostages” and places were set for him when Shabbat tables for the hostages were set up throughout the Bay Area, as covered by culture editor Andrew Esensten. Hersh’s mother, Rachel Goldberg, has become one of the public faces of the hostages’ families, which JTA touched on in multiple articles this year.

4. Gaza resolutions considered by city governments

In November and early December, it was all the rage in Northern California to derail city council and board of supervisor meetings with debates about Gaza and Israel. We covered efforts to pass resolutions in Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland — and there were others across the region as well.

5. Sacramento Kings’ Domantas Sabonis is joining Team Jewish

Finally, some good news! We learned this year that NBA basketball player Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings is converting to Judaism. His wife, Shashana Sabonis, who is Jewish, told us in an interview that “he loves [Judaism] and really wants to be a part of it.”

6. Henry Bens, the public school teacher who brought antisemitism into his classroom

Beginning in February, we covered the saga of Henry Bens, a teacher at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward who introduced a unit on the Holocaust by passing out copies of an antisemitic hoax text called “The Hidden Tyranny.” Students, parents and other teachers were outraged. Bens is now gone from Hayward schools, and a report this fall found that the school district dragged its feet on dealing with him. A saga in five acts:

1. East Bay high school teacher called out for antisemitic lessons
2. Teacher who assigned antisemitic text preaches controversial Hebrew Israelite doctrine
3. ‘Why is nothing being done?’ Tensions high after suspension of Hayward teacher who taught antisemitic lessons
4. Hayward teacher who used antisemitic text will not return to classroom
5. Report: Hayward school district dragged feet on antisemitism in the classroom

7. Shooting at Russian synagogue and community center in San Francisco

On Feb. 1, Dmitri Mishin walked into the Schneerson Center and opened fire on about a dozen people with a gun loaded with blanks. We covered the immediate aftermath, Mishin’s arrest, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ attempt to charge him with a hate crime — and the judge’s decision to toss out the hate crime charge.

Gabe Stutman’s most in-depth piece on the incident’s effect on the community was translated into Russian, a first for us.

8. The death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein

The life, death and legacy of Dianne Feinstein, California’s long-serving senator and former San Francisco mayor, was one of the major pre-Oct. 7 themes of our coverage this year. In March, with Feinstein’s retirement on the horizon, staff writer Emma Goss looked back at her long career and ties to the Jewish community. When Feinstein died on Sept. 29 at the age of 90. Emma returned to the subject of her Jewish legacy soon after.

Photographer Aaron Levy-Wolins captured these deft images of City Hall in the aftermath. Staff writer Maya Mirsky found Feinstein’s first appearance in this publication when she was just 13 years old. And Emma covered Feinstein’s politically star-studded memorial service on Oct. 5 in front of City Hall as Fleet Week jets screamed overhead.

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9. Local governments grapple with antisemitic remote public comments

Before local city council and board of supervisors meetings were being derailed by public comments over the Israel-Hamas war, right-wing antisemitic conspiracy theorists began repeatedly calling in to meetings with sickening rants about the Jews. Many local governments felt compelled to revise or retract their pandemic-era policies that enabled members of the public to call in their comments when it wasn’t safe to show up in person.

But as antisemites started to abuse such policies, several cities revisited the practice, including El Cerrito, Walnut Creek and San Francisco. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors faced a similar situation when it was inundated with antisemitic callers after (rightly) reversing course on “Christian Heritage Month.”

10. East Bay Chabad couple welcomes a fourth set of twins

Bless the whims of internet traffic for the chance to end this list on a happy note. In April, Chanie and Rabbi Shimon Gruzman welcomed their seventh and eighth children — their fourth set of twins! Maya Mirsky brings you the cute (and exhausting, if you think about it) story of the family that runs Chabad of Castro Valley.

May 2024 bring us fewer stories about antisemitism and more stories about cute babies.